The Law of the Garbage Truck

This is one of those times when your typical motivational speaker would be able to fake it and give you great words of inspiration. Unfortunately, I am not your typical speaker.

It was an extremely difficult weekend with Evan. He was aggressive and very emotional On Friday, we had to fill out the paperwork to let them begin testing to put him in special education. I don’t know why it was so hard for me. It will allow them to provide him with additional services and attention. I guess it is the first time I had to really admitto myself that his life may be very different from what I had hoped and wished for.

In any case, rather than try to fake it, I decided to post one of my favorite “motivational stories”. I will be following my own advice and focus on choosing how I think this week. Not easy…..but doable.

Thanks again for your continued prayers and support.

The Law Of The Garbage Truck

One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches! The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us.

My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was really friendly. So I asked, ‘Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!’ This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, ‘The Law of the Garbage Truck.’

He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they’ll dump it on you.

Don’t take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don’t take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets. The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day. Life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so…..

Love the people who treat you right. Pray for the ones who don’t, and watch out for the garbage trucks!’

I work for the largest university in the nation, and our solid waste/recycling program is used as a benchmark by other universities; this story will make a great read for our staff. My prayers and best wishes to you and your family.

Anne, you have been an incredible mother to Evan and an inspiration to many. Thank you for the Garbage Truck story. I think I dumped some garbage on a co-worker today, but this little story will certainly make me think next time I start to let go!

I don’t typcially write/respond to a blog, however my deepest sympathy goes out to you and your family during this time. I too, have a son that had to receive special education (due to a learning disability). As a result, he did receive a lot of services that aren’t typically available to others. I had to do a sort of reality check and realize that my feeling have nothing to do with my child’s ability to learn (or vise-versa). I am so greatful for the services he recieved/receives, however as a parent I felt a little helpless. We all want to the very best for our children (especially I we felt hardships during our childhood) and sometimes it is just out of our hands. I found comfort in learning as much as I could about my son disability and found support groups with parents also in my situation.